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Prompt 1 (Mysterious Carolers): Caroling has been a tradition for years, so it’s not really unusual when you hear a soft chorus from outside. What is unusual is that it’s three in the morning, and the moment they start singing you feel a chill in the air. Maybe it’s a holiday song, maybe it’s not, but whatever it is it’s a song you know before--from this life? From another?--and something about this version makes you go cold. If you move to the window, you will find no carolers, but the song is loud enough that you know you should be able to see them. They sing one song, and then there is silence. An eerie chill lingers, and your dreams are haunted by strange voices. You’ll probably never be able to hear that song again without feeling a chill.


The Mauvian should have known better than to meander, particularly in the evening with her star so visible. While she was swift on her feet there were others who were more so, and who possessed powers far beyond her own that could make her life a misery. Whether they be Negaverse or alien, the world now had two threats, and she was equipped to deal with neither of them. To battle against that would require the development of weaponry that she hadn't tried her paw at in goodness knows how long. She'd never been much for weapons to begin with, preferring more utility based inventions, but as the threats against the last sanctuary to the living grew and grew, she was beginning to wonder if perhaps she should ask Orias to teach him the method behind his madness. Yes, that feline had no qualms about building something destructive and explosive, even if Athalia had always managed to contain it to a degree.

Diplomacy failed when one didn't have enough power to back it up.

On this occasion, that and pacifism were most certainly a weakness. Qualities that could be exploited, that made them (though mostly her) completely vulnerable to the abuse of others.

Oh she knew that there would be those in Order who firmly believed the aliens hadn't meant to attack them, hadn't meant to wound or main them... Hadn't meant to force some of them into corruption. Starseeds had been torn out, senshi and knights enslaved alike, and all because they had been silly enough to trust an unknown entity with a large weapon that could do everything they dreamed of. However this Mauvian had learned her lesson and if they were to be safe then it was absolutely vital that they built their own weapons, that they had their own might and magic to defend them, and that they never relied on an idealistic promise from another species who had only come for something they wanted.

...The subordinates were harmless, those in power were not. She could forget the cadets and everything they had been thrust into, but when it came to Lyndin and those who had fallen in to line behind him, who knew and were happy to surround and exploit Order; it was safe to say it was much more difficult to forgive them.

To forgive herself for falling for some of it...Even when she had been warned.

Lost in her thoughts she had become unaware of the time that had passed, the paths she had walked down, and eventually the streets she had meandered into. As minutes passed in to hours, the Mauvian soon found herself in the deserted shopping district. With the stores closed for the evening and no shoppers in sight, it should have been quite; and yet as she looked up briefly to take in her surroundings and gain her bearings, she came to the realisation that she wasn't alone. In the early hours of the morning she could hear singing, and as those voices swept across the tips of her ears she gave a shiver. Had their been a late night event she was missing, some sort of peculiar festivity held by the city? It wasn't entirely impossible that it was but it certainly seemed improbable.

Her lips pursed - if such bizarre things were occurring in this part of the city then that meant that there could be something out here luring unfortunate and curious souls in. She wasn't aware of the purpose of such a thing, but when it came to Destiny City and the monsters that lurked within she wasn't willing to let it lie. For all she knew there could be a youma attempting to pull the innocent towards it and by morning, there would be several bodies lying in a heap on the floor. Even if she were a Mauvian, it was in her best interests to get to the bottom of it and when she did, call for help so that others really didn't get hurt. This was change she could effect, these were measures she could take to make sure that nothing bad happened, and she would be remiss to ignore it.

Her chest puffed up against the cold, and after she had shaken the rather odd sensation from the tips of her ears she began to follow the sound.

One step, two step.

Many steps later she found herself staring into the blackest of windows she had ever seen. Seemingly devoid of light and yet deep in there she could hear that music, there was something in there, that song couldn't be missed... and yet as she took another step to draw nearer a bright and golden glow swept across the window and the voices went silent. The deep and pitch black within the window replaced by faint shadows and outlines of merchandised revealed by whatever happened to have appeared behind her.

"I thought you knew better than to be tricked by the magic in this rather messed up city," a very familiar voice drawled. A warmth to it, a hint of amusement, but one that was nonetheless unimpressed by the antics of a city that had a very bad habit of causing havoc and times when it should be joyful rather than dangerous.

It was with widened eyes that she spun round, and sure enough she came face to face with someone she had been certain would not be coming back. A senshi now aglow with peculiar markings and radiating with considerably more power than she had remembered.

Athalia.

"You're alive," she gasped.

"Yes, even though I was fairly positive I wouldn't be," he admitted, kneeling down to peer into the glass that she had been staring into. "Though perhaps this reunion is best had away from public thorough fares, deserted or otherwise," he advised gently as he gave her a delicate nudge. "Particularly once that seemed to have swept you into their thrall."

"...If you're here then you would have heard it too," she pointed out, a remark that received a rather curt shake of the senshi's head.

"Maybe I'm not in as festive a spirit as the city's fairies would like this season," he murmured. "I was following you, dazed as you were," he pointed out. "Because if you couldn't sense me then that's not a great sign," he finished and pulled himself to his feet once more.

"Let's get you home - rest assured if there's anything chaotic here, I'll know," he added and flicked his finger towards the very small twitching bug nearby. If it was the city's magic then he could do nothing about it, but if it was a Negaverse trap, then he would find out soon enough.

"You're in so much trouble," she replied softly, numbly perhaps as she cast a glance over her shoulder towards the window and finally began to follow after the senshi.

"Of that I have no doubt," he responded with a half smile. "But sometimes you have to do what's necessary, even if it's neither popular or understood." He finished and began to stride down the street... though not before he had thrust his hand into his subspace pocket to extract a coat. As 'strong' as he might have become in his absence, he was not weather proof, and he had lost a considerable amount of clothing in exchange for that boost in power that his planet had blessed him with!

Words (Namielle) : 935
Words (Athalia) : 321 (Cameo)